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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Leprosy in Australia

Western Australia has had 20 new cases of leprosy in the past five years. The disease disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
 
So what is leprosy? And why isn’t it a thing of the past?
 

Monday, July 30, 2018

When plague came to Australia

The word ‘plague’ immediately conjures images of a medieval time-period, rats, and, if you have a brain like mine, Monty Python performers shouting ‘bring out yer dead’. 

In fact, there were three pandemics of plague – the 17th century ‘black death’ being the best known. All three pandemic plagues – the Justinian plague of the 5th century, the medieval black plague and the third pandemic or ‘modern plague’ - had significantly high mortality rates and as a result have changed the course of civilisation.